Heck, even with no-one attacking the wall, it's probably going to stop being an effective wall for various other reasons . The fact that an actual border wall would take literally years to survey (to avoid having it collapse, sink, crack, crumble, or otherwise fall) -- and Donald Trump intends to d...

I'm sorry, but I believe in an afterlife that is better than this life so resorting to hatred to stay alive isn't necessary (though I'm only human so I don't know what I'd do until I do it). That's understandable, and I don't spite you for it; I also appreciate that you acknowledge you don't know w...

Telling Democrats to not hate Republicans is literally the same as telling black people to not hate the KKK. Their politics are that they oppose my existence in America. Listen, I agree with your vector, but I think you need to reduce your scalar. Black people in America have plenty more (very spec...

There is no good reason for hatred (except Satan in my religion). We're only human, but that's an excuse rather than a good reason. If hatred keeps a person alive, is that even a life worth living? For your whole life? No. But to survive a dreadful ordeal? Yes. Listen: I'd be dead if it wasn't for ...

2> Whether you want to have that debate or not, their support of the wall is making the possibility of it more real than just idle talk. It's hard to say anything to anyone these days because people just don't know who to believe. And I can kind of understand why: Walls are exciting! They're someth...

It means that we need to take that into consideration when looking at why the message appeals to more than just white voters. But if the core base of Trump is overwhelmingly white -- if Trumpism appeals to white men more than anyone else -- then I think that's the most important thing to look at, i...

No, it's not normal, but it's also not just Trump who is making it this way. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi aren't helping the situation in the least. Both sides are throwing tantrums and blaming the other. If a child lays down on the floor and refuses to move until you give him a lollipop, is it a...

I wouldn't call it white male identity politics. It's probably more like "the way things used to be". You say that as if it's not the same thing..."The way things used to be" is an enormous dog-whistle. Not all of his supporters are white. It's true that not all of his supporter...

Its pretty dubious that its the police training that drives police to do that rather than the authority that comes with the position. If you took away all the police training but still gave then guns and the authority to use force things would be FAR worse than if you trained them. Police are train...

As for Greyhound Therapy, LePage doesn't refer to it as such, I just used it as it's the same principle. If you want to give me a euphemism for "sending your poor/unwanted Somewhere Else", I'm all ears. That's just it; no state is going to say, "oh, Maine has Medicaid? Let's ship all...

The biggest concern was that it would enable a lot of poor people from Boston and so forth to relocate to Maine. Greyhound therapy is an actual thing, after all. I sincerely hope you're wrong. Otherwise, it sounds like the problem here is that people in Maine don't understand 1) How moving works, 2...

I'm not going to defend the border patrol's policies, but there are a few important facts that need to be established: ⋅ The girl started exhibiting symptoms while on a bus. Maybe the bus-driver should have radio'd or called for medical attention? Maybe the bus-driver wasn't even aware of ...

The BBC has published an article on this topic not because a class teaching school staff about guns is in-itself newsworthy, or to advance any particular agenda, but because this is the hill that Republicans and Democrats, who together control the United States Government, have chosen to stand or d...

It's hardly necessary to posit some far-fetched conspiracy or 'frothing' pursuit of ratings to ascribe an anti-gun bias to an arm of the British government. So, because you ascribe an anti-gun bias to the BBC, this article is anti-gun propaganda? Do you have any sort of evidence or reason that this...

Yes. I'm saying it's not anti-gun propaganda. It's just a goddamn news story. But what do I know? Maybe you're right; maybe there really is a conspiracy by the British government to foist anti-gun propaganda on top of us. Lord knows the BBC is known for their rampant, frothing-at-the-mouth sensation...

EdgarJPublius, you responded to an article wherein teachers describe their deep discomfort with a policy that arms and trains them to shoot their own students by rolling your eyes and dismissing it as anti-gun propaganda.

I want to see increased funding for school counselors, and maybe even training programs so teachers can identify and handle students with mental health problems or other issues that need special care until they can be diverted to appropriate programs for their issues, which would require those prog...

I think the logic is that if everyone knows which teacher has the gun that teacher gets shot first and the gun gets taken for use in the massacre, rather than being used to stop it. Honestly, I'm less concerned with the actual physical presence of a gun in a classroom (well, okay, part of me is con...

There's no concrete data on that, and even schools that explicitly have 'armed teacher' programs are reasonably reluctant to disclose numbers. It is, after all, reasonable for the state to be reluctant about disclosing how many teachers they've armed and trained to kill students. It's reasonable to...

I'm sure this article is a dispassionate and comprehensive view of the course curriculum, surely nothing was left out or embellished to advance a particular narrative :roll: Teachers in schools have been legally armed in many states for basically the entire history of America, and so far the predic...

Mass shootings are basically nothing in terms of the real damage and problems firearm culture plays in the US. Okay? Firearm culture is basically nothing in terms of the eventual heat death of the universe. People are dead because of mass shootings. I'm saying you should consider that they have a p...

Thing is this isn’t new. Its been going on for over a decade at least now. This is another headline that makes a mountain out of a molehill in the same way people try to use mass shootings to reform gun laws. Like mass shootings the shock factor here is what gets people up in arms (teehee) but in r...

Arming teachers with guns after a 3 day crash course that emphasizes how every student is a potential murder-machine -- and they're wholly within their legal rights to kill them whenever they feel threatened -- is definitely the right move, here. There is no possible way this could end badly. Nope! ...

When Scar dies at the end, the rain starts falling immediately. I think we can safely take the drought (and the fire, and the sunless sky, etc) as metaphors for the misery caused by Scar's misrule. That ties to old traditions where the king is held responsible for the harvest (and presidents for th...

Are they getting anything accomplished at these briefings? Is there a point to press briefings when there is no cooperation and blatant lies? I don't mind if they don't go if they deem it. I have to imagine journalism right now is like the gold rush, and these particular hills might be all but tapp...

Yes, it would likely be used to justify Trump’s claim that journalists in general are conspiring against him. While this might be the case, the alternative is calling upon journalists to not do their job . I recognize there are no good choices here, but if the only options available to journalists ...

I think this is an awful idea given the circumstances of the propaganda machine. The spin would be tremendously effective. Keep in mind, by "politely break the rules", I mean "keep doing their job even when it's against the rules". It's their job to ask people in power difficult...

That, too -- particularly with Huckabee. Just keep following up with the previous reporter's question when they keep acting evasive. One difference between someone like Trump and someone like Putin is that Trump has no idea how to keep his cool when you confront him on his bullshit. He acts like a c...

Members of the Press keep talking about not showing up to Presidential briefings, but I think they ought to do the opposite. I think they should all show up, and proceed to politely break the rules until they're all kicked out. What would have really given me the warm and fuzzies from that press bri...

Back around to Trump news, in a move that surprised nobody, Trump sides With Saudis Despite Khashoggi Killing (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/world/middleeast/trump-saudi-khashoggi.html). The response contrasting this to his response to the Central Park Five sums it up well. Well, at least we'r...

I'm saying that whatever fantastic narrative they've built (and the contradictory nature of several conspiracy theories) means that they're less likely to follow a singular leader because the odds of finding 40 conspiracy nuts who believe the exact same conspiracies in the exact same way is like ge...

But to answer your question - kinda depends on how we define cult, doesn't it? While I'm sure a significant chunk of them are, I assume the majority of them are too far down their own individual rabbit holes of conspiracy to be swayed by someone else ("Get a load of that chucklefuck who believ...

I just now read maybe three cumulative pages'-worth overwhelmingly of no-one budging in an "immovable object leaning against another immovable object" so-called-discussion. And that was just the fall-put from the prior bits of 'discussion' that remains unresolved. I haven't got coloured-t...

Have you ever encountered a dog while alone on the street? Did you stomp its skull just to hear the crunch? Why not? The crunch is much less satisfying then you might think. And they are a pain to catch and hold during the stomping. No of course not that would be horrible. Is it a cute dog? Or is i...

@ucim: I've painted houses (I was actually raised by a professional painter, and often painted alongside him!), so I can tell you point #1 is simply wrong; what you end up doing depends a lot on the circumstances (I've never seen a case where you literally have to paint an entire house to cover up a...

Humans are more complex than you think. Violence is not a "setting", but a tool, and almost every kid is perfectly capable of using this tool without any training - when not afraid of the consequences. If this were true, then we would expect the majority of children to torture animals for...